July 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators proposed easing a
shortage of airwaves for smartphones by giving mobile carriers
such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. access to airwaves used
by federal agencies, including the military.

The Federal Communications Commission, in an e-mailed
statement yesterday, called for comments through October on
plans it said “will help ensure that the speed, capacity, and
ubiquity of the nation’s wireless networks keeps pace with the
skyrocketing demand for mobile service.”

The government would auction rights to use of the airwaves,
setting up a possible competition among No. 1 Verizon, second-largest wireless carrier AT&T, as well as Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., the remaining two nationwide competitors.

“This proceeding has the potential to repurpose a
significant amount of spectrum for flexible commercial use,
benefiting consumers and businesses across the nation,” Mignon
Clyburn, the FCC’s acting chairwoman, said in an e-mailed
statement.

President Barack Obama’s administration has called for
sharing airwaves to help ease congestion from explosive growth
in mobile traffic.

Some of the frequencies at issue -- those in the 1755-to-1780 megahertz band -- have been identified by carriers as
suitable for helping to handle soaring wireless traffic from
smartphones and tablet computers.

Teresa Takai, the Pentagon’s chief information officer, in
a July 17 letter to the FCC proposed moving some military
functions, such as microwave links and aerial surveillance, to
other airwaves and letting commercial users share frequencies
currently devoted to satellite operations and air-combat
training.